Farmers opposed to GAIL’s KKMBP pipeline project staged a sit-in protest at the Collectorate here on Thursday alleging that GAIL was undertaking project works in parts of Kelamangalam in contravention of the State government’s resolution passed in the Assembly.
The pipeline (KKMBP – Kochi - Kootanadu – Mangaluru - Bengaluru pipeline Project) is being laid from Kochi to pass through Tamil Nadu via Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Namakkal, Salem, Dharmapuri ,and Krishnagiri to Bengaluru to carry natural gas. The project conceived a decade ago has seen vehement opposition amongst farmers of the Western region.
According to the farmers’ collective objecting to the passage of the pipeline through the farmlands, GAIL is undertaking works in parts of Kelamangalam on farmlands. This is in violation to the resolution passed by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa-led government that no pipeline shall be allowed to pass through farmlands. The farmers, underlining their support to the project if the pipelines are laid along the highway, said the pipelines were being laid without affecting the farmlands in Kerala and Karnataka. However, farmlands were proposed to be taken over in the Tamil Nadu stretch. The protesters called for a reiteration of the resolution earlier passed by the government as a confidence-building measure among farmers.
The affected farmers of the Irugur-Devanakondhi Pipeline project of BPCL also joined the protest.
